Tuesday, December 18, 2012

December 18

If you really think taking away an assault rifle that can shoot 20 kids, up to 11 times each, in just minutes - is somehow infringing on your freedom - you are just a sick bastard. We're not about taking away your precious guns, we're talking about making smarter decisions for this country, so smarten up. It's time for you to stop being so afraid. We are discussing the ending of LIFE...you know, that thing you pretend to care about when we discuss abortions.

Two women tried to do that on Friday. Dawn Hochsprung and Mary Sherlach were shot and killed in the process.

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Credit where credit is due. I've flamed Manchin on numerous occasions, but he might be the vanguard of a change in thought about gun control:

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin — who has an "A" rating from the NRA and is a lifetime member of the pro-gun rights group — said Monday that it was time to "move beyond rhetoric" on gun control.

"I just came with my family from deer hunting," Manchin said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "I've never had more than three shells in a clip. Sometimes you don't get more than one shot anyway at a deer. It's common sense. It's time to move beyond rhetoric. We need to sit down and have a common-sense discussion and move in a reasonable way."

Two things- Manchin is the guy who used a rifle in a commercial to shoot climate control legislation. Second, if you watch the clip, Manchin seriously looks like he is about to cry. He's not that skilled a thespian, so I think it is legit.

Washington, DC–States with higher gun ownership rates and weak gun laws have the highest rates of gun death according to a new analysis by the Violence Policy Center (VPC) of just-released 2008 national data (the most recent available) from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.

The analysis reveals that the five states with the highest per capita gun death rates were Alaska, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, and Wyoming. Each of these states had a per capita gun death rate far exceeding the national per capita gun death rate of 10.38 per 100,000 for 2008. Each state has lax gun laws and higher gun ownership rates.

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Tennessee's Old Paths Baptist Church Pastor Sam Morris says that public schools (which he calls government schools) are "mind control centers" teaching America's children "junk like Evolution" and "how to be a homo." Anyway, he ties in abortion somehow and gun control and it leads ultimately to slaughter or something. I don't speak fluent Wingnuttian, so I might have forgotten to carry the two in his logic-flow. (Raw Story)

In case you're following the rumors and trial balloons that are leaking out of the fiscal cliff negotiations, here's the newest one:

The details, via a source familiar with the negotiations, include: a movement on revenue demands to $1.2 trillion from an initial $1.6 trillion, a permanent extension of Bush-era tax rates for incomes less than $400,000 (Obama initially set the threshold at $250,000), $1.2 trillion in spending cuts, a "fast track process" for corporate and individual tax reform once the new Congress convenes, permanent extension of tax extenders and the alternative minimum tax, an extension of unemployment benefits set to expire at the end of the year, additional stimulus in the form of infrastructure spending and a two-year debt limit increase.

The White House proposal would also allow the payroll tax cut to expire, and call for $130 billion in savings from Social Security benefits by adjusting the program's inflation index. The offer would include protections for the most vulnerable recipients, the person said.

The Social Security and Payroll Tax things suck, and I have no idea what the spending cuts will ultimately look like, so whatever on that. Look, this isn't the deal, it's the deal right now — maybe. Get outraged or ignore this however you'd like.

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This is a page from The Herald newspaper in South Carolina. Can you spot what's wrong with this picture?

Yes, that's a giant gun sale ad placed right in the middle of a story on the Sandy Hook school shooting.

The Herald has issued an apology, but their apology leaves me even more baffled than before.

But we at The Herald should have recognized the unfortunate juxtaposition of the advertisement with stories and a photograph about gun violence," the newspaper's editor, Paul Osmundson, wrote in a column on Saturday. "Multiple editors worked on the page and should have noticed the problem. We all made a terrible mistake, and for that I apologize."

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley announced today that Tea Party Representative Tim Scott will replace Senator Jim DeMint as he exits congress bound for the Heritage Foundation.

Scott's legislative history, if you're unfamiliar, leaves much to be desired if what you're looking for in a senator is sanity and compassion. ThinkProgress has the highlights.

Proposed a bill to cut off food stamps for entire families if one member went on strike. One of the most anti-union members of Congress, Scott proposed a bill two months after entering Congress in 2011 to kick families off food stamps if one adult were participating in a strike. Scott's legislation made no exception for children or other dependents.

Wanted to spend an unlimited amount of money to display Ten Commandments outside county building. When Scott was on the Charleston County Council, one of his primary issues was displaying the Ten Commandments outside the Council building. According to the Augusta Chronicle, Scott said the display "would remind council members and speakers the moral absolutes they should follow." When he was sued for violating the Constitution and a Circuit Judge's orders, Scott was nonplussed: "Whatever it costs in the pursuit of this goal (of displaying the Commandments) is worth it."

Scott also reportedly backed a state proposal to cut the state's HIV/AIDS budget, effecting over 2000 infected people, and threatened to impeach President Obama if he unilaterally raised the national debt ceiling.

Tim Scott also co-sponsored a House bill to ease restrictions on interstate gun sales.

Scott also has the endorsement of Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, former Governor Mark "Hiking the Appalachian Trail" Sanford, the Club for Growth, Freedomworks, and the Chamber of Commerce.

Scott has the fervent anti-Obama record demanded by the far right. On Sean Hannity's Fox News show, Scott said, "This president has consistently found himself on the wrong side of the concept of the rule of law." He claimed, "It's a liberal media bias that insulates this president from having to explain the truth to any American citizen about the things that go wrong in this government."

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Religious Right Cred

Scott espouses far-right positions on abortion and gay rights – he has a zero rating from the Human Rights Campaign – and he promotes the Religious Right's absurd claim that Christians are somehow a persecuted minority in this country. During this year's South Carolina primary, Scott was among the speakers at a pre-debate rally hosted by Ralph Reed's Faith and Freedom Coalition. "The greatest minority under assault today are Christians," Scott said. "No doubt about it." He also said, "We need a revolution in this country." "And we need a revival in this land."

[...]

Tea Party Cred

Scott came to Congress on the 2010 Tea Party wave and talks like it. He takes a Tea Partier's rhetorical approach to the Constitution, telling attendees at a town hall meeting, "I think states' rights, state sovereignty, the 9th and 10th amendment, has to be protected against our federal government." He says the immigration issue is "easy" — "We want to make sure the local law enforcement is empowered to enforce the laws of the country." Congress is a "freak show." The country needs to "drill baby, drill." The Environmental Protection Agency is a "job-killing agency" that needs to be chopped off at the knees.

Any questions?

Scott will be the first black Republican senator from the south since reconstruction, which is, to say the least, a tragedy. He'll also be the first black Republican senator in the country since 1979.